Konihk
So, Wycliffe will speak this language at times, probably mostly with Sven, or when singing a traditional folk song of his people. Here are the pages of notes... they'll probably keep getting bigger. The lexicon will be at the end, so skip there if you want the basics. I'm writing this with the assumption that most people haven't had a chance to study linguistics previously. I might give common examples from Western European languages to explain sounds, but I'll try to explain funky grammar concepts as best I can. (I have linguistics buddies who can get me to zone out after two sentences of scientific jargon, so I'll try NOT to do that. Feel free to comment if anything seems unclear or confusing. Language created by Chautauquan. Phoneme Inventory Vowels a-like "father" or Autumn i-like seek, or feed e-Sort of like bagel, pay, pate, the "é" sound of Romance languages. o-No, phone, Pogo ih-See: In, Stick, Big eh-Bet, spent, enter u- Food, Tune * Diphthongs exist! I'll just put a y to indicate the sound as it combines with the following "i" sound. Consonants If an English equivalent is exact, I'll leave it be, but some are more... specific. k, n, m, t, l, w, f, y, s l'--Lateral fricative. If you speak Welsh or Nahuatl, you already know what this is. If you don't (I don't), the sound is made by blowing air around the outside of your own tongue. It sounds weird, but honestly, we also make super weird sounds.... Th--This actually exists in English, but I want to specify how exactly. It sounds like "th" in thought, things, or think, but not like these, this, and weather. Gh--It's kind of like gargling. Back of the throat, just let the sound flow from that part, while trying to restrict air slightly. A little bit like the French "R" R-trilled, rather like in Spanish, Russian, Italian, etc... Sh- Like the English digraph. Shishkebab, for instance. Grammar Animacy You know how a lot of languages use syntax (word order) to determine what happens in a sentence. For instance, we know the difference between "the cat saw a dog" and "a dog saw the cat". They're different sentences, with different meanings. Well, not all languages do this. In our case, we use an "animacy heirarchy". Pretty much, it involves deciding the sentence not based on word order, but instead, on an idea of what is the most animate. For instance, we recognize that a rock isn't as animate as a dog. (Rocks don't really do much at all, as we all know). So, in Wycliffe's tongue, we can say "Dog saw rock", or "Rock saw dog" Saw rock dog" "Saw dog rock" "Dog rock saw" or even "Rock dog saw", and it will mean the same thing. We know the dog must be the one witnessing the rock, because rocks aren't animate. Still with me? Good. So, in our language, there are 6 categories of animacy. In ascending order, we go: 1-Non-living objects, 2-Plants, 3-Animals, 4-Humans, 5-Forces of Nature, or intangible sensations, and 6-Divine sources of power. So, in other words, we naturally assume that higher numbers will be subjects, lower will be direct objects, and lowest will be oblique objects. Examples: Lightning hit the man. (We know which is which) Thor smote the man with his hammer (poor guy, I've zapped him twice now!) Problems come when we want to switch things up. What if Thor decides to use lightning to hit the man? How do we fix this? Simple answer: We 'conjugate' the verb a little differently. Verbs will only change to explain what's going on with the nouns interacting with them. Example: *Venny fed Camo a fish. --Fenni ketal Kamo riba'l. *Camo fed Venny a fish.--Fenni oketaw Kamo riba'l. *A fish fed Venny Camo (We would NEVER allow this, of course.)--Fenni oketayo Kamo riba'l. fish! Get the idea? You can ignore word order entirely with this system, and just throw things together willy-nilly. ONE MORE NOTE! What happens when two things of the same animacy try to interact? Simple: You figure out the heirarchy by order of size. Unknown sizes are assumed to be larger than known sizes, and formality is also assigned a level of animacy. Formal types are assigned larger sizes, given more animacy. Formality will overcome size, whenever that happens. Conjunctions are super important in this language, however. Knowing the connection between nouns (arguments of the verb) is vital to keeping track of everything else. As I said earlier, break your brain a bit, and everything will make sense later. Head-modifier for each argument. (In other words, it's dog red, not red dog, and went quickly, never quickly went) Time/tense can be assigned by word context, or left to be understood in context of conversation. Conditional Clauses Conditional is activated and ended by using the particle necessary for the clause. For example, we say in English: "If a is b, then b is c." And in KYM, it is said, "If a is b, if, then b is c then." Command Form Verbs are placed in command form via gemination (doubling). That's right, say it twice, and you really mean it! It doesn't even have to be at the same time, you can split it up by words, but it must be in the same phrase or clause. Lexicon Pronouns Yeh-First person (I, me, myself) Rawar- Second person Grammatical Affixes -l= typical verb ending -t= actor of any verb -k= the "noun of the verb" -sh= plural form -ay- dual form (plural form for matching pairs, like hands, gloves, eyes, etc.) -f= Adjectival ending of a verb Particles and Conjuctions Otnaka-However ghai- What (interrogative) gheyr- who (int.) gheeth- where (int.) tihl-and (both subjects and phrases) ihl-of, when placed between two nouns Ne-Negation particle Fi- Comparative particle Kost-"let it be" "May" Alone, it can be considered a command to leave something be, but is used in the sense of allowing something. It's a permissive particle. Verbs Rekyeel-to guide Nonol-to wait Shehshal-to harm Waghal-to ready something, someone (one's self if single argument) Konihl-to speak Tonihl-to hear, understand Ghayel-To ask Ketal-to feed Tekal-to eat Fenol-to join Nofel - escape Kehnehl-to know Snafal-to learn Yarehl-to hunt Tenal- to be big(ger) (final optional 3rd argument specifies in which way) Netal - to be small(er) Tanral-To be attractive. Taking more arguments means that it is attractive (or liked) by someone. Third argument is the area of attraction. When combined with the words for family or friends, it can establish linguistically the nature of any given relationship (romantic, friendship, fraternal, etc.) Shashehl-To nurture Arnatal - To be Ugly as hell Ghaireel - to be confused Nouns Kwaighir- Eagle Trakon-Dragon (Loanword from Viking) Shol-Island Skeri-King Riba'l-fish K'lamehr-brother Waik-Greeting Konihk-speech, tongue, (pl.) language Nihnok - Mute Yarehk-the Hunt Thor- house Yareht-Hunter 'Lagheym-Life Menort-Death Tirt-Village Klin!-Expletive. Literally, it means buckwheat, but is similar enough to an actual rude expletive that it is commonly used in the sense of "Crap." Kaiw-Farewell Sar-Person Shken-Sun Tenasar - Father Tanrasar - girlfriend/boyfrienmd Shashehlsar-Mother Mir-Peace Rim-War Adjectives Waghaf-Ready lihf-Kind, good Fihl - bad, evil ? Ihton - stupid Time Words Tek-before (used as general past) Ket-After (used as general future) Lar-then Meyeen-Now Wakana- anytime Location/Direction Words South- Ehresh (also hot) North-Kentih'l (also cold) West-Thorihlsar (also sunset) East-Thorihlshken (also sunrise)